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Friday, June 30, 2017

Last weekend on Sunday June 25, the Sunbeamer team, the RFL team of the Newser office neighbors the Sunweaver community, held an ambitious event for the Relay. They held a steampunk-themed racing event taking place not just on the ground but in the air. Team Meli's Maniacs also took part, and a number of people came for the races and the music and dance party that took place afterwards. It was a fun event with lots to do and see. It was also the most successful event Team Sunbeamers ever had, getting over 154,000 Linden dollars for them and bringing the team into Platinum Level.

Some sad news about a longtime friend of the Second Life Newser. Breezes Babii, whom has been in poor health, has been described as getting worse.

Breezes was described by Dana Vanmoer, the editor of the Second Life Newspaper as her "SL Mother," and was noted for her "Breezes Thoughts" columns. She would write briefly for the SL Newser. She has been a longtime member of the Tombstone Western community, whom is hopping for not just a recovery, but for her to get completely well.

"We’re
not entirely sure what a Sananok is, but the Moles assure us they are
friendly creatures that tend to keep to themselves and need a good home.
Each Sananok avatar comes with a mysterious egg, which is in fact so
mysterious, not even the Moles know what it will hatch into." The egg jostles and moves a little bit when the avatar carries it around.

With Canada Day and the Fourth of July just around the corner, Residents from the United States and Canada may want to get a flag to help celebrate. While you could shop around on Marketplace, one place inworld you can get on is the Flag Factory at the Made in Paris sim.

Dropping in, one will be surrounded by banners of many kinds. The store boasts, "More than 400 countries and topics with 14 styles of flagpoles : hand-held to huge." The sizes most vendors offer are 4m 10m 23m, hand-held, and "street." There are also "conference" and "ultimate" packs one can purchase for extra cash. The ones of the latter two for the United States are showcased with their own vendors. Besides the standard US flag, one can also get a weathered "Old Glory" or a combination US and Texas flag. The store also offers a Canada and Quebec flag combination. I was told that the store is offering hand-held US flags for a limited time.

There are flags of just about every nation on the planet, and for individual US states, Canadian provinces, and French localities. There are also flags for holidays, flags for personalities such as Michael Jackson and Nelson Mandela, pirate flags, gay pride flags, even a gay pirate flag, castle flags, and more.

Some residents may recall the controversy about the Confederate flag a couple years ago. While it has been largely taken down from Marketplace, one can buy it here. However, I couldn't help but notice where it was placed, right next to the Cuban and Venezuelan flags, two countries with noble people, but repressive governments. Perhaps coincidence. Perhaps a subtle statement of some kind.

Kitty Vinje posted this image on Facebook of how someone with a Bento head appeared on her viewer, which she felt was a cautionary tale of just up and going and getting the newest thing before checking and seeing how well it would appear to others. One person commented, "How awful, you're gliding around thinking how glamorous you are looking but THIS is what everyone else sees!" Another posted, "Lends a whole no meaning to the term 'Happy Hippo.'"

Maybe it egged on team captain Rita Mariner a little, but the results in any case were the team going Platinum, so I had to make do on my promise. BUT, I didn't say what kind of female look. So when we kept steadily heading to the mark, an idea came to me: get a look as close to our team captain as I could. I asked a few mutual friends first as many who prefer furry avatars take being unique seriously. When I was told she wouldn't get upset, I went for it. Luckily, she had told people what brand dress she had. Getting the hairpiece and the feet was another matter and had to get items that were close. As it turned out, the store where she got the hair was no longer around.

So what did the "Killer Rabbit" think upon seeing the results of the avatar challenge? She had a good laugh, considering it funny and clever, and had the idea of posing for this picture. So for a week, yours truly will be in a skirt. The only complaint so far, one girl ribbing me that I should have done a look based on her. But considering her chest, the results would have given me a backache just by looking at it.

But it's all in the name of fun, and for a good cause, the Relay for Life. And yours truly can say it took a large amount of money to take this step. It just went to cancer research, not me.

Update: Rita posted the following on Facebook:

I am posting 2 days in a row, but this one is too good not to put up.
As I mentioned before my Second Life team, The Sunbeamers, raises money
for the RFL and the ACS (American Cancer Society). Well we had a small
side bet going from one of our members, Bixyl Shuftan. He said, if our
team made Platinum, he would go female avatar for a week. We did and
yesterday evening he revealed herself to a waiting crowd, at my Club
Cutlass. I was surprised, delighted and laughed some. Bixyl came
dressed as a Rita Clone, or as close as he could get. It was like
looking into a mirror. He spent some time and money on this one. Good
Going Bixyl, you got me!

Uploaded June 26, the video Of the June 19 "Meet the Lindens" interview of Patch and Dee Linden by Saffia Widdershins at the SL14B auditorium. Inara Pey would write some on the event, of which hinted that the avatar Linden Lab gave as a gift at the SL14B was related to something that would be released in the late summer or early fall, and that the Social Islands intended for Second Life newcomers may be getting some changes soon.

Since the reopening of Club Zero Gravity, work on the space station club has continued. Nydia Tungsten installed a gaming room with games to play between events. For now, the games are Parcheesi (sometimes called "Cheesy"), Greedy, and Cards Against Humanity.

Of the three, "Cards Against Humanity" is less about strategy and more about having a warped sense of humor, or at least having a good knowledge of how one works. Personally, it's a game I have mixed feelings about winning, considering some of the definitely adult-rated questions and possible answers. But it's all in the name of fun.

There's also a poker game, though it's in a side room on the main floor and not the game room.

Club Zero Gravity currently has three events a week, on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 10AM to 12 Noon SL time.

Kultivate Magazine (Kultivate) will hold a fundraiser in support of Homes For Our Troops. This event will feature live performers, dj parties, a special flag hunt, and an art auction with proceeds going to Homes for Our Troops (HFOT). Homes For Our Troops is a charity that supports veterans by providing resources that can help veterans rebuild their lives after military deployments and war. The fundraiser will take place July 1 to 4, 2017.

Tuesday, July 4, 2017:
12pm to 2pm slt-4th of July Party (daytime)
4pm to 6pm slt-4th of July Party (nighttime)
6pm slt-Fireworks; art auction ends; hunt ends

About Homes For Our Troops
HFOT builds homes as a departure point for Veterans to rebuild their lives, and once again become highly productive members of society. Despite their life-altering injuries, many Veterans have embarked on new careers, completed their college degrees, or started families. Empowered by the freedom a mortgage-free and specially adapted home brings, these Veterans can now focus on their recovery and return to their life’s work of serving others. Many have embraced their roles as motivational speakers, sharing their messages of persevering through tragedy with groups and classrooms around the country; others take to a national platform to promote awareness of veteran suicide, homelessness and PTSD. Their incredible stories are the driving force for the work for HFOT.

About Kultivate Magazine
Kultivate Magazine is a publication about the cultural aspects of Second Life. The goal of Kultivate Magazine is to support art, culture, photography, music, and fashion. Kultivate Magazine consists of the magazine, The Edge, Edge Productions, and The Edge Gallery; The Windlight Art Gallery, The Red Gallery, The Kultivate Bailywick Gallery, The Kultivate Select Gallery, Ristorante Ivanna, & The Tribute and Crown Pub. Kultivate Magazine is proud to be the media partner and primary sponsor of Team Diabetes of Second Life, an official and authorized team for The American Diabetes Association.

The Second Life Fourteenth Birthday is over. But the sims remain up for viewing for another week. For the Newser, it's a chance to document a few more exhibits, as well as show you the readers what examples await you in the time that's left.

On Sunday June 25, Veterans Isle hosted a Homes For Our Troops benefit concert. The event was the sim and group's monthly fundraiser for the charity, running from 4PM to just after 9PM SL time (Midnight EST), with several live musicians and one DJ taking part.

It's that time of the month! Our monthly benefit for Homes For Our Troops is tonight. Funkyfreddy is first …and he is giving a way an audio copy of his show tonight to those who donate 2000 linden during his set! Come on out, enjoy yourself and help our extremely wounded vets get a home that accommodates their needs.

DJ Waya Snowpaw started things off at 4PM. At 5PM, Funkyfreddy Republic took to the stage. Third at 6PM was Ganjo Mokeev. At 7PM, SRV4U Conacher, aka "The Blues Preacher" stepped up to perform. Last but not least was Gina Stella whom finished the event. Frets Nirvana, who helped organize the event, usually performs at the fundraisers. But this time he watched from the audience and donated some cash, which went into the two house-shaped kiosks on either side of the stage.

Among those in the audience were Oldesoul Eldemar and Sabine McGettin, two noted Relay for Life personalities.

At the end of the performances, 86,200 had been collected in the left kiosk, and the right had 100,000 even, for a total of 186,000 Linden dollars raised for the veterans charity.

The monthly concerts usually take place on the last weekend of every month. Next month's event should be on Sunday July 30.

For more information on Homes For Our Troops , check out their website at https://www.hfotusa.org

Taken at the SL14B Auditorium. Xiola Linden was almost certainly just wearing the shirt for chuckles, though considering her Linden status, it does leave a few things to the imagination, as well as did the t-shirt she wore a few days later.

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

The Second Life Birthday celebrations are over, but that doesn't mean the fun has. Here's the schedules of the Sunweaver and Angel clubs and the Furry Fashion Lounge as they close out the month of June and start up July.

Brandi Streusel, the owner of "Brandi's Intimates," is best known for her line of undergarments, earning her store the nickname "Brandi's Panties." But she's been making more than that. At the Happy Vixen, she recently demonstrated her "AFK Live Trap."

Tired of patrons AFKing in your club? Have a little fun with them by placing them in a live trap. Trap door swings shut but only the owner can release the victim. Comes with its own a piece of cheese bait or replace it with any bait you so desire to lure them in.

Intended for use at a club as a good-natured prank on those who go away from the keyboard unannounced, the trap can be used anywhere the owner has rezz rights. The cage can be placed on top of someone, but only the owner can open the door. Of course, the person inside can just teleport right out, but it's intended for those AFK, as the title suggests. Although the trap has a piece of cheese inside, one can replace it with some other kind of "bait" such as coins or swimsuit issue magazines.

The cage comes in two sizes, small and large, for the low prices of 25 and 50 Lindens.

Relay Weekend, set for July 15 and 16, is almost here and just wait until you see what’s been planned this year! From
the Opening Ceremony to the Closing Ceremony, Relay Weekend is an
exciting and special time, one that you don’t want to miss.

One
way to get involved is to become a sponsor of Relay Weekend. There are
many different levels of sponsorships available -- both in-world and
non-virtual real world opportunities -- and all designed to benefit not
only Relay For Life of Second Life but for you as the sponsor as well..
Check out relayforlifeofsecondlife.org/get-involved/sponsorship/ for details and be a part of this fun event that attracts thousands.

Our bags are packed and our passports are ready for Relay Weekend. Won’t you come along with us?

About Relay For Life of Second Life

Relay
For Life is the signature event of the American Cancer Society and has
been active, and continually growing in Second Life for 13 years. In
2005, the first Relay For Life of Second Life (RFL of SL) was attended
by a few hundred avatars and raised almost $5,000 US dollars for the
American Cancer Society. As of July 2014 RFL of SL ranked number 17th in
donations received among more than 5,600 relay events held worldwide.
As of January, 2017 RFL of SL celebrated raising 3 million US dollars to
support the mission of the Society to 'Save Lives, Celebrate Lives and
Lead The Fight for A World Without Cancer!

About the American Cancer Society

For
more than 100 years, the American Cancer Society has been working to
create a world with less cancer and more birthdays and is the world
leader in the fight to end cancer. Together with our global partners and
millions of supporters, the American Cancer Society carries out its
mission to Save Lives, Celebrate Lives, and Lead the Fight for a World
Without Cancer.

Monday, June 26, 2017

When the Steampunk Land and Sky Races event for Team Sunbeamers, in cooperation with Mel's Maniacs, started yesterday, the "beamers" had raised a total of 412,500 Linden dollars. We were well into Gold and 150,000 Linden dollars away from Platinum rank. We had achieved this seemingly impossible dream last year. And once again, it was within sight.

And once again, the little team that could pulled it off once again. Near the end of the day, thanks to several people who reached a little deeper into their pockets, and of course the hard work and cleverness of Cynthia Farshore and Shockwave Yareach, our shooting for the moon had once again resulted in the Eagle landing.

For those of us lucky enough to be at Cynthia's Road Rally/Air Race today. We made PLATINUM! We cracked the level at the dance down in the Goblin Cave, while listening to great music, DJ'd by Cynthia. Oldesoul and several members of other teams showed. We even helped Meli's Maniacs make SILVER. All in all a very successful event.

Team Captain Rita Mariner's only complaint was that not everyone could be at the race and party. And some people contacted me, saying events in real life had kept them away and were sorry they missed the event.

Some teams manage to make it big once, then for whatever reason are unable to make an effort the following year. While the Sunbeamers are not the most successful Relay team, they, and their predecessor team the Passionate Redheads, have made good showings year after year after year. The Relay has been a source of community pride, and we were happy to share that pride with Mel's Maniacs who took part in this and other events this year.

But our work isn't quite over. We still have our campsite for the Relay Weekend to work on. But this time, the little team that could will be taking part in the walk around the track a little prouder, flying it's flag a little higher. Many from the Sunbeamer community and outside contributed in some way with time, money, or both, some people in large ways. And once again, our effort has paid off.

Sunday June 25 was the last day of official events at the Second Life Fourteenth Birthday celebrations. And there were a number of performances at the stages.

The energetic DJ Tantari Kim, who performs every Tuesday night at the Happy Vixen, made an appearance at the DJ stage.

Among those in the audience were Golan Eilde and Catboy Qunhua (pictured).

Later on, I went to "Stage Left" where Jaycatt and Frogg were performing.

While Frogg Marlowe rezzed, my viewer refused to render more than small parts of Jaycatt Nico during the performance.

I had to wait until after the show for a good picture of the pianist.

Xiola Linden and April Linden were also there. Of Xiola's shirt, does "We are the weirdos, Mister" refer to Linden Lab?

As Midnight neared, people gathered at the Cake Stage. The last DJ there was Laz Dressler

Among those there was Cake Stage builder Mikati Slade.

"This is the Birthday!"

"That's why you're in a cake..."

As Midnight neared, Laz ended her set with "Goodbye To You." "Thank you all so much for staying with me tonight," she told the crowd, "Good night everybody. Have a blessed Second Life."

In previous years, Midnight would mean the end. But I noticed a gathering at Stage Left, and going over, I saw fireworks.

Among those there was Walton F. Wainwright (Faust Steamer), the builder of Stage Left.

Seeing another gathering in front of the Cake Stage, I went over, and there were a few people, including Warp Linden and Mikati enjoying one more event, a few fireworks. Some spelled some words.

"Happy 14th Birthday Second Life. See you next year."

And so, the official events for "The Birthday" are done. But that does not mean the end of the SL14B just yet. The sims will remain up for several more days, and most exhibitors leave their builds up, allowing those who couldn't attend earlier due to real life events or older computers to see them. One unofficial event that's become a tradition, the "Cake Explosion" has been given a date: Sunday July 2 at 4PM SL time. But on Monday July 3, the sad part begins with "the breakdown." And on July 6 the sims go offline, leaving nothing but memories, recordings, and articles such as this one.

Astral Sector Alpha, also known as ASA or the Astrids, is a community of artists of different stripes that originated in Second Life, although not all of the members are within Second Life. They also have a Discord presence and do live readings every other Saturday over Discord (as not everyone can successfully use SL voice reliably) starting at 6 PM SLT and gather in world for camaraderie during the reads. ASA's goal is to nurture each other's creativity and to provide a good grounding for artists, writers, and other creators to grow within and draw encouragement from. Members are encouraged to start their own projects.

ASA has worked with several small libraries in the past to provide reading exchanges and art/writing contests, including with the Trotsdale library. Amehana Ishtari's past writing workshops and a Haiku anthology between cooperating Second Life libraries, available for free on Smashwords at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/542449 are examples of the sort of projects that members launch.

Art of several types is on display at the current art fair, things represented are visual art in the form of drawings and photograpy, jewelery, images created in blender, textual offering to be read either by the author or by volunteers, and "glitch photography" which is a new art form developed by Danielderv Resident, which has even had an article published about it in a university level publication. The building itself was created for the art fair.

For inworld readings of the content in the fair, readings will happen from the 30th to the 3rd at 5 PM SLT to ensure that all that was submitted has a chance to be shared.

This art fair is also intended to kick off a weekly magazine format. For more details about that particular endeavor talk to Danielderv Resident.

One of the best known clubs in the history of the Sunweaver/Angel community has been Club Zero Gravity. Originally a cubelike structure constructed by Shockwave Yareach, it took on the form of the space station it's been known for when rebuilt by Ranchan Weidman around 2009. The club would run for about four years from summer 2010 to August 2014. In it's last year, it was modified again, But it's "steel ball" form wasn't quite as well liked as the one it reopened under.

The sci-fi themed venue was so popular, there was interest in reviving it as soon as it's closing was announced. But where to put the club so it didn't "lag anyone out" and when would it play so it wouldn't interfere with the hours of other neighborhood clubs, it would take three years before solutions were found. Ranchan would work on a new design, one based on the one from seven years ago, but with some differences. Instead of a small private room above the dance floor and DJ booth, there would be an open lounge area for people to socialize and relax. The dance floor had an image of a galaxy, with a spinning spiral disk over the center. A blue terrestrial world would appear to circle the station, visible through it's windows. Since the original Zero Gravity got it's name from upside-down dance poles, there was one where a girl could dance from a spiral-pattern half ball from the ceiling. The old Zero Gravity logo was above the contest board. When someone tips the DJ, a laser light announces it.

Rather than just reopen the club, it was decided to rekindle interest by doing a screenshot sci-fi miniserial comic (parts 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, 7 and 8, 9 and 10, final), with owner Nydia Tungsten, Ranchan, and Matoazma "Mato" Kazyanenko doing the work on the story, directing, and editing. The comic shows a crew in space finding an object that turns out to be a derelict space station. The second to final scene shows a ceremony in which Nydia is handed the keys, and the last announcing the space station club's reopening. The strips appeared in the Second Life Newser and posted on Facebook, the last one appearing on the morning of June 22. Later in the day, the reopening time was announced, 6PM SL time.

As 6PM approached, people began gathering at the club, with DJ Lexi "Sexy Lexi" Tymets, a nezumi or "anime mousegirl" spinning the tunes. Events at the Happy Vixen were canceled that night, the themes moved to next week, so the people at the beach club could get a look at the shiny new Zero-G. There was much cheering and celebration, and a 1000 Linden dollar prize for the best space-themed look. The prize was won by Nikkita (Aubrytia Resident).

For now, the club will have a morning, or "Euro-friendly," schedule, with events on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 10AM to Noon SL time. DJ Lexi will perform on Tuesday and Thursday. On Friday DJ Brandi will play the tunes. But there will be impromptu events, such as a poker game that was held over the weekend, and occasionally Nydia herself switching on the DJ booth and inviting people over.

After three years adrift, the "party among the stars" is back and better than ever. Beam on over for some space-themed fun.

Saturday, June 24, 2017

The Second Life Fourteenth Birthday celebrations have been going on all week. For us reporters, the biggest problem about the exhibits, many showing high skill and creativity, is that there's not enough time to write about them all. So one has to start somewhere. So here's a look at several exhibits of SL14B Electrify, which besides the Second Life Newser has the National Space Society, the Giant Snail Races, the Second Life Coast Guard, and more. Some were just displays, but others were interactive.